I've been talking with my current boss. He and I are close and we talk about everything professionally and personally. He's been using my software at his office and so far he really likes it. He's been advising me to retain all the rights to this software as it could be very profitable in the future.
As an intellectual property attorney, alarm bells go off when I read stories like this.
My first question is, whether you are 100% sure that you own the software and that it is not a work for hire by your current employer. If you are an employee, the copyright for works you create in the scope of employment belong to your employer. If you additionally are a salaried employee, then 'within the scope of your employment' can be a include time after hours and at your home. Read your contract and your employee manuals.
ABE: But work for hire works outside of contract law. Reading your contract won't be enough.
Your boss does not seem to think the company owns your software, but if your boss is not an officer of the company, your boss does not have the authority to speak for the company on this issue.
Assuming you navigate through that quagmire...
After that, you need to decide whether or not you want to sell all or part of your rights your new company. If you do, your new company would benefit from a clean determination of your rights with respect to your old company. If your UI design does indeed suck, maybe you can make more money via some kind of partnership with you.
Beware of your contract and the employee manual. If you are not being asked to make declarations about intellectual property that you already own in the face of the new employers knowledge of same, that should raise a flag.
Also, make sure none of your companies internal policies have crept into the 'business logic' of your software. Some of those things may be trade secrets, and you are not authorized to disclose those.
I've been in a position like yours at least with regards to creating some useful software at work. However when I left my old engineering job, the company eventually ceased to use my software, and I went to a new job in a completely different field of work. Haven't even looked at the software in something like ten years.
Edited by NoNukes, : trade secrets
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.
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